Best major metropolitan area for DG

[kevdiv48]

There are literally dozens of courses in the Chicagoland area.

FTFY.

Yup. Easily one of the lowest high quality course per capita in comparison to other metro areas. Heck, most of the other metro areas in IL have better courses than Chicagoland, i.e. Peoria, Quad Cities, Rockford and St. Louis.

To answer the OP's question: Milwaukee, Des Moines and Peoria, IL.

 

[Punk In Drublic]

DFW is the worst. Mainly because of the lack of elevation, lack of beauty, and the Texas mud. Also, so many courses force a pitch out.

 

[scarpfish]

Ok. I'm not sure if this has been done before, as all I have researched and found deals strictly with number of courses... But in your opinions, what is THE best major metro area for disc golf?!? I'm not talking strictly sheer number of courses within a certain radius. I'm talking about EVERYTHING involved. Such as, number of quality courses, # of 18+ hole courses compared to 9 holers, amount of different weekly leagues, well-ran leagues, amount of PDGA sanctioned events annually, shops to buy plastic, positive attitudes of local chuckers, growth of the sport in the community, etc, etc, etc.... And, go!

How many of us have traveled enough to possibly even know this? Let's ask someone who might know.

Martin, batter up.

I've searched far and wide. It's hard to compare to Charlotte.

^
Based on all my loafing time on this website. I'm gonna go with that one. Charlotte is definitely on my DG bucket list.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

FWIW - Miami has to be one of the worst places in terms of quality courses near a metro area.

 

[DavidSauls]

FWIW - Miami has to be one of the worst places in terms of quality courses near a metro area.

That's because within a 30 mile radius, 90% is ocean or everglades. The other 10% has a maximum elevation of 1.5 feet above sea level.

 

[DavidSauls]

How many of us have traveled enough to possibly even know this? Let's ask someone who might know.

Martin, batter up.


^
Based on all my loafing time on this website. I'm gonna go with that one. Charlotte is definitely on my DG bucket list.

It would be interesting to nominate a half-dozen or so locales, and see how many people have played enough at each one to compare them. Have a standard, say, having play 7 of the highest 10 rated courses around that city. See how many of the contenders any disc golfer has really, throrougly, played.

As for the "scene", and league play, I doubt anyone has played enough league play in more than 2 or 3 of the top cities to judge. The closest thing you could come up with is how many league events per week, and average attendance.

 

[Darth Anovin]

I guess I was looking more for the best dg "scene," so to speak...

 

[BogeyNoMore]

That's because within a 30 mile radius, 90% is ocean or everglades. The other 10% has a maximum elevation of 1.5 feet above sea level.

I grew up in the Miami Ft Lauderdale are... there are plenty of parks in Dade and Broward Counties that could have courses but don't. Granted, it's hard to find elevation down there, (which almost always enhances course) but there simply aren't many places in the area to play - good or otherwise.

I guess I was looking more for the best dg "scene," so to speak...

That's hard to say, but I'd say check out DGScene.com - chances are the areas with the most and biggest clubs have the most active local scenes. Also look for places with lots of tournies.

 

[simplepmart]

I like the idea of carving the U.S. up into 3 major regions and picking the best metro area in each region i.e. West Coast, Mid-West, and East Coast category, each with it's own winning metro area. I have never been to the West Coast so I have no opinion on that. I have only been to the East Coasts southern half so I don't have enough personal experience to rank a best metro area there.
I have been from north to south all over the Mid-West region and I would rank the top three metro areas as:
1. Kansas City: every sort of course you could imagine and there are more top shelf courses here than any other Mid-West metro area.
2. Mpls./St. Paul: There may not be as many great courses here as KC but there are still a handful of incredibly beautiful and well kept courses that it is a close 2nd in my opinion.
3. Iowa: I know it's a state, so it technically doesn't count in this poll, but there are so many incredible courses scattered throughout that one could easily do a little traveling and play a great variety of top notch courses.
4. My runner up would be the Austin Tx area. I would not want to live there or consistently play the courses there but there are quite a few very good courses thus it would be my runner up for best metro area in the mid-west.
My bucket list for the West Coast is Oregon and the Carolina's for the East Coast.

 

[juju]

KC is the correct answer.

 

[mashnut]

It would be interesting to nominate a half-dozen or so locales, and see how many people have played enough at each one to compare them. Have a standard, say, having play 7 of the highest 10 rated courses around that city. See how many of the contenders any disc golfer has really, throrougly, played.

As for the "scene", and league play, I doubt anyone has played enough league play in more than 2 or 3 of the top cities to judge. The closest thing you could come up with is how many league events per week, and average attendance.

Martin and I have both played just about every listed area in this thread, I'm with him on Charlotte. There are a handful of other players with that wide an experience, I agree that it would be fun to get their perspective (Hosfeld, Calhoun, Danhyzer etc.)

 

[Martin Dewgarita]

My unbiased review of Charlotte.

Anywhere you could choose to live in Charlotte will give you at least 1 or 2 courses to call local, and it is an awesome course. You know that course you stop by on the way to work or after dinner before going to bed. Now lets say you have the afternoon free - within an hour drive the options are epic, unique challenging world class courses - if you're not aware I'll let you do your own rresearch. Now lets say you have the day free and are willing to drive 2-3 hous - even moe opteions of supeior epicness. Other places can produce some decent numbers and are well worth the visit or I could be plenty content with a lifetime of dg in, and a few individual courses rise above in epic awesomeness.. but it all pales in comparrison to charlotte - and I haven't even dipped into the underground private scene or the hopping tourney scene, or the plethorra ofleagues nd events.

 

[ThomasOrion]

Minneapolis St Paul is good...but probably not Amazing...we need more 'better' courses. Plus a few of them are over-rated. BRP is the one that I do think deserves a 9/10...only no 10 because it's not very unique with the land...no big elevation changes at all...but that makes it a little easier to play 50+ holes.

Acorn's teepads suck. Kaposia is never maintained (but good). Bassett has terrible T's.

 

[Cgkdisc]

No southern city can possibly have the best OVERALL disc golf scene unless they bring in snow and sub-zero cold. Disc golf has evolved beyond warm weather disc golf in shorts. Learning to play in snow, cold and at night in those conditions is part of a well rounded game and helps keep your interest as your DG opportunities change with the seasons.

Twin Cities has more courses around the metro area than any city south of Chicago along with the leagues almost every day and events year-round plus top notch DG retail stores. Twin Cities and Minnesota are regularly in top 5 for best park systems, jobs and places to live in general. It would be interesting to take the top 10 DGCR rated courses in KC, Charlotte and the Twin Cities and match them head-to-head (anyone up to do it?). Even if the Twin Cities barely came in third, KC and Charlotte can't make up for the other factors as I look outside and see a 4-inch snow cover with 3 degrees forecast for the Red Oak Rumble on Saturday.

 

[New013]

No southern city can possibly have the best OVERALL disc golf scene unless they bring in snow and sub-zero cold. Disc golf has evolved beyond warm weather disc golf in shorts. Learning to play in snow, cold and at night in those conditions is part of a well rounded game and helps keep your interest as your DG opportunities change with the seasons.

Twin Cities has more courses around the metro area than any city south of Chicago along with the leagues almost every day and events year-round plus top notch DG retail stores. Twin Cities and Minnesota are regularly in top 5 for best park systems, jobs and places to live in general. It would be interesting to take the top 10 DGCR rated courses in KC, Charlotte and the Twin Cities and match them head-to-head (anyone up to do it?). Even if the Twin Cities barely came in third, KC and Charlotte can't make up for the other factors as I look outside and see a 4-inch snow cover with 3 degrees forecast for the Red Oak Rumble on Saturday.

well that was unbiased...

NC has it's own PDGA tour... get real.

 

[mashnut]

Not sure I agree Chuck. I'm perfectly capable of playing and having fun in just about any weather the upper midwest can throw at you but I have a lot more fun playing in nicer weather year round now that I'm somewhere that you don't deal with those things. There's a reason that (until this year) the super bowl is held in warm weather or a dome, it's just more fun to see people at the top of their game rather than watching them struggle to deal with the elements in any sport.

I would agree that the Twin Cities is high on the list for density of good courses and the overall tournament and league scene, though it doesn't quite have the density of other dg destinations surrounding it like Charlotte does with Rock Hill, Raleigh, Augusta, Atlanta, Appling etc.

 

[bhadella]

Very interesting perspective. 99.9999% of people would say the lack of snow is a positive attribute of an area. Having grown up in the lake effect snow belt of NW Indiana I certainly don't want anything to do with snow anymore.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Just going with what the OP was looking for which was the best overall DG scene. I would likely take Charlotte or KC over Twin Cities if warm weather DG on lots of decent courses was the criteria.

 

[Sammish]

I think you should pay me to travel across the country and play all the metro courses in the country until I have solid research to give you a proper answer. lol Of course I am sure everyone on this site would sign up for that job.

On a serious note. I live in Missouri and haven't done much playing out of state. However, I still have to say that Kansas City has a combination of courses and two major disc golf stores(Disc Golf World and Dynamic Discs). KC would have to be a part of the discussion in which area is the best.

 

[reposado]

how about this, since people are clearly interested. everyone who wants ranks the cities they have played the majority of.

(for consistency, lets use this list of cities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_of_the_United_States)

if we get enough people to do it, and theres enough connectivity, i can come up with a ranking. no discredit for not being listed by someone, only who you are ranked above and below.

heres mine

1 charlotte, nc
2 durham-chapel hill, nc
3 orlando, fl
4 raleigh, nc
5 hartford, ct
6 portland, me
7 daytona-deland, fl
8 asheville, nc
9 savannah, ga
10 jacksonville, fl
11 ocala, fl
12 charleston, sc
13 new york, ny

What we are really looking at is,
1. how many courses are right there within 20 minutes (local everyday courses)
2. how many courses within about 40-45 mins. (could play a round after work if you wanted, an easy weekend play)
3. how many courses within about 2-3 hours(can make a weekend trip)

so durham gets credit that the raleigh courses are within 40 mins, charlotte is less than 3 hours, etc

anything else you want to consider, weather, private scene, leagues, etc, thats up to you.